A while back Struan had told me about a wine tasting event that goes on periodically in Kobe. It’s at the Sheraton on Port Island, and it’s a bit pricey (5000 yen a person!) He was planning to attend the next one because one of his teachers had invited him, and so he in turn invited Kuniko and me.
I met Struan on the Akashi platform, and we caught the shinkaisoku train towards Kobe. The plan was to meet up with Kuniko in Sannomiya, since she was already there because of work. Tanaka sensei was to meet us in the same area, as well.
We sat on the bench seats of the train, and there was a really beautiful girl standing across from us. Struan mentioned casually that she was the woman of his dreams. I settled back to watch Struan try to figure out a way to say hello without seeming like a sexual offender. I came up with a few novel ways to say hello, but in the end he didn’t have the courage. She looked at us a couple of times, and looked away quickly. When we got to the station she happened to be going the opposite way, so we watched her go, and Struan hung on to the faint hope that she used the same station we did, so maybe he’d see her again.
We met Kuniko near the bus stop, and soon after that Tanaka sensei showed up. She is a middle aged home economics teacher at Struan’s school, and we were all surprised how well she spoke English. She was always smiling and she looked serious about tasting wine today. They were hoping to get some “tips from a pro”, so I told them I’d do my best. We caught the bus to the hotel, and walked into the lobby.
It was a pretty nice hotel, and there were Americans here and there among the mostly Japanese staff. The place looked expensive, and it’s in a pretty remote location. The idea I guess was to get traffic coming this direction from the Osaka airport. It’s about a 40 minute bus ride from the hotel to the airport, so it’s not exactly convenient.
We went inside the sports bar, where the event was being held. We duly paid our 5000 yen each, and went inside. The bar was quite nice, and the array of bottles was pretty impressive. There were four distributors, and you could taste from their selection as much as you liked. They had some upscale wines that they were charging for a taste – and it seemed like they were getting some action.
We were some of the first people there, and we got started right away. There was a huge lineup of empty glasses, and so we each grabbed one, I picked a wine to try, we all got a healthy pour and then we sat down to taste it. There weren’t dump buckets, and they poured about a third of a glass of wine. Also, there wasn’t much room to stand in front of the bottles because of the foot traffic, so it was better to go back to our seats. We sat at a dinner table set with silverware, and there was a full meal that came along with it.
We tried lots of wines, starting with whites, then moving to Pinot Noirs and finally into the heavier reds. There were some winners and some losers, but it was a great variety. I tried to explain what I thought of each wine, why I felt that way, what I tasted in each glass, and I think that might have been interesting to Struan and Tanaka sensei. They had both seen the movie “Sideways” and that had fueled some of their interest.
Since we wanted to compare wines we left the first glass, grabbed some more empties, and filled up again. Soon our table was full of glasses. The staff were a little alarmed with that kind of behavior but made no move to stop it. I created little dump buckets out of the first few glasses, and left those on the table. Struan had no dump buckets – he just drank. Tanaka sensei was also hitting it pretty hard – she was funny to watch because she was trying to stay organized and remember all the wines, to rate them on the sheet, and still drink to her heart’s content. I was surprised they poured as much as they did.
The staff was patient with us – other tables were quietly sipping their wines and we were racing through wines and creating a huge collection of glassware. They brought us some delicious food – an appetizer plate for each of us with some salmon sashimi, prociutto, sweet figs, and some kind of shellfish all buttered and garlic ked. They also had all the bread and garlic bread you wanted. There was a main course of a wine marinated chicken with cheesy risotto, and there was a cheese platter with two kinds of cheese (goat and a brie-like cheese) to enjoy afterwards.
I’m not sure when we all arrived at the drunken stage – but it seemed to come at different times. Kuniko was getting sleepy at the table, Struan was rambling on about this and that, Tanaka sensei was giggling uncontrollably and kept saying how embarrassed she was (but in perfect English!) and I was using dump bucket glasses but still feeling a really nice buzz.
We had a time limit of two and a half hours, and we used up every minute. They were selling the wines there, so if you liked one you could buy it at a discount. Struan and I both bought a bottle of Trebbiano from Italy that was really good. Struan also bought a pinot noir that he liked.
From there we headed back to Sannomiya, and then went our separate ways. Kuniko and I went shopping for wedding rings and found a set that we liked at the Sogo department store downtown.
You might wonder if it is a good idea to buy something you will be wearing every day for the rest of your life after consuming so much wine. All I can say is that we really liked the rings last night, and as I type this I hope that when they are finished engraving them and they arrive that we will like them just as much.
We ate a few snacks in Chinatown, got some drinks at Starbucks for a dessert, and then finally caught the train back home. We were both bushed, and crashed out soon after we arrived. I can’t believe we have to work tomorrow!
